Verizon 700 MHz LTE: We’re Done!

Posted by
Sam Churchill
on
June 27th, 2013

Verizon Wireless announced today that its 4G LTE network now covers 500 markets in 49 states and will launch next month in Alaska. It began building out its 700 MHz-based, LTE network in December 2010.

Verizon’s LTE network, using 20 Mhz on the 700 MHz band, is now available to more than 99 percent of its 3G footprint and to more than 95 percent of the entire U.S. population. Today, some 57 percent of Verizon Wireless’ data is carried on its 4G LTE.

With Verizon’s nationwide 4G coverage, the company is now planning the gradual retirement of its 3G CDMA networks on the 800 MHz band and 1.9 GHz PCS band. Verizon will start refarming PCS spectrum for LTE in 2015.

The two dominant owners of AWS spectrum, by far, are now Verizon and T-Mobile. Both have comprehensive nationwide coverage. After AT&T lost their $39 billion merger bid with T-Mobile, they forfeited much of their AWS holdings to T-Mobile.

Verizon later swapped AWS spectrum with T-Mobile to give both sides more contiguous spectrum within the AWS-1 band.

Verizon says their 700 MHz C band and AWS will be the two bands that will be for roaming. The big test will be whether Verizon will lock out T-Mobile on the AWS band.

Both AT&T and Verizon told the FCC that roaming was technically impractical for smaller LTE operators using the 700 MHz “A” block. That froze out the phones and LTE service of smaller operators, making them isolated islands, lowering their worth.

Trying to cut-off T-Mobile’s AWS service from roaming might be a tougher sell since both Verizon and T-Mobile’s AWS service share more power and operational specs. How Tom Wheeler plays his cards may be revealing.

Palmer said Verizon’s service would include video-casting and other real-time multimedia communications features. As an IP service, VoLTE could be integrated into other applications such as over-the-top video applications.

According to Juniper Research, the total number of LTE subscriber globally is estimated to be 105 million this year and is expected to nearly double to 220 million world-wide in 2014.

The real growth of LTE happens in 2014-2017 as the Asia-Pacific region kicks in with their TD-LTE systems in China and India, with Japan and South Korea also adding significant numbers. The primary bands for LTE world-wide is expected to be 1800 MHz and 2600 Mhz. Unfortunately, the PCS and AWS bands in the United States are not globally aligned, so the 2.6 GHz band appears to be the most likely to provide global roaming.